Eviction notices were served today on 45 Arab families living in the Kfar Etzion area near Hebron to take effect immediately after the current fruit-picking season. The order was originally issued last June for “overriding security reasons” but was postponed at the request of the Arab elders of Hebron.
The order amounts to the requisition of 300 acres of land occupied by five Arab clans. Part of the property originally belonged to Jewish settlers of the Kfar Etzion bloc from whom it was seized by the Jordanian Arab Legion during the 1948 war. The land was subsequently parcelled out among the Arabs It was recaptured by Israel during the 1967 war. The Arab farmers reportedly refused offers of compensation.
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